Tami's Top Ten List of Office Irritations

10. Microsoft Outlook emails that state the user's mailbox is over it's size limit. The email itself isn't so bad. The fact that it comes automatically 400 times, further adding to said mailbox size, is.

9. Overzealous janitorial staff that vacuum under my desk while I'm still seated. This happens daily people… It is not usually too bad, except when she runs the vacuum into my feet!

8. Other worker's leftover fish being re-heated in the breakroom microwave, and stinking up the whole office.

7. The blue screen of death!

6. One phrase…"Do you have a minute?" Of course not. But I'll help you anyway…I'm too nice that way. I make up for it in other ornery ways.

5. Last minute urgent requests from management, sent at the end of the day, immediately before said manager leaves the office. It happened today.

4. Uninvited guests appearing at the departmental potluck. Are you a part of our department? Did we tell you to help yourself? Do we enjoy your company? Why are you here?

3. Walking into the breakroom to find that someone used the last sugar packet/creamer/tea bag/etc, and did not refill the stash. When I need my caffeine, I need it now.

2. Co-workers that sing or hum at their desk. (Please - Save it for the car. I do!)

1. Cell phone conversations in the public restrooms. I don't care who you are, or who you think you are. I do not want to hear your business while I'm doing mine. It's called a restroom for a reason. Give it a rest.

2 Weekends at Once

Pardon my tardiness, but it's something I'm known for. I've decided to recap the last two weekends together today.

I'll start with the weekend after I returned from Boston. (Makes sense, chronologically, after all.) On Saturday, I met up with my friend Christyn's sister-in-law to prepare for the baby shower, which was last Sunday. We hit Costco and picked up a bunch of food, and then headed over to their in-law's house to prep the favors and wait for the tables and chairs to be delivered. (Normally, I would not rent tables/chairs for a backyard shower, but Maureen was insistent, so she did that part.) We also planted individual petunias into little terra cotta pots as favors.

The shower went pretty well. We played a few games - even a water balloon toss (little water balloon in a diaper), and ate a whole lot of food. Maureen brought chocolate-covered strawberries and I made a key-lime angel food cake (in the photo above - the recipe didn't make quite enough frosting to cover the sides...or I am just not good at frosting cakes...). I am hoping that Christyn had a good time. :)

This weekend, I went up to my friend Kristin's cabin in LaPorte (CA). We left right after I got home from work on Friday and got there close to midnight. The cabin was freezing when we got there! So, Kristin started a fire in the cast-iron stove to heat the place up, and discovered that whoever was there last had closed the flue, which is broken, so you can't open it all the way from the lever on the outside of the chimney above the stove. It was a bit smokey that first night, but she managed to open it enough that we wouldn't asfixiate in our sleep. (I may be exaggerating a bit...it didn't fill the cabin with smoke or anything, there was just a little smoke seeping out the front of the fireplace, with the rest going up the chimney.)

On Saturday morning, we walked down to the lake, where there were a ton of these colorful little butterflies flittering and fluttering all over the place, close to the ground. It was quite difficult to get a good shot of them - camera shy, I guess. (And fast little fliers.)

After lunch, we sat on the deck reading for a while, but decided to head down to "town" and explore. We parked on the street in front of this tree, which had grown up and around this sign, of which I had to take a picture (naturally!). If you can't read it, it actually says, "DEER KEEP OFF HIGHWAY - MOTORISTS ARE PASSING." The tree trunk has grown over the smaller writing along the bottom.

Kristin and I decided to check out the little (literally - 2 rooms) museum on the main road, which was actually pretty cool. Lots of historical town information and items that had been recovered from the old gold mining sites. It also houses the world's largest bottle collection (old glass bottles) and the world's largest butter dish collection. (Not so sure if they really have the world's largest collections...but who am I to judge?)After that, we walked a few blocks to the town cemetery, which also is the site of the old schoolhouse. I think the oldest headstone was from 1830-something, with the newest ones in the 2000's. Kind of neat, but then I tend to get a kick out of old cemetaries (I'm twisted). The photo above is a detail of the ironwork fencing around one plot. After the cemetary, we peeked in the general store, then headed back to the cabin for dinner. Grilled burgers and salad...followed a little later with roasted marshmallows. You can't tell from this picture, but there really is a fire in that fireplace...flames and everything. (And don't you love the carpeting in the cabin?) Anyway, after filling ourselves with molten sugar, we settled down in easy chairs and read for a while (I crocheted a bit before my eyes got too tired, then moved on to my book).

And today we headed back. As we were packing up the car, the couple that owns the cabin next door were outside, so Kristin decided to go say hi. The man (Craig) is the nephew of Kristin's step-grandmother. I ended up chatting with his wife, and somehow it came out that I went to SSU, and she was wondering if I was there when her niece was, and she almost didn't follow through with the statement. But she threw out the name, and it turns out that her niece was my roommate when I was a sophomore (and her niece, Marta, was a freshman). What a small world!!

And now I'm tired again, and need to get to bed. I hope everyone else had good, relaxing weekends!

Looking Good?

I have been going through a little phase of feeling rather blah about myself. Might have something to do with getting back up to 10lbs over my lowest weight at WW last week, when I was less than a pound from goal around this time last year. Maybe it has something to do with this week having sucked so royally at work. (Too much work, constant requests for information/special projects/general crap from the bosses, 2 new employees that require training and don't know how to use basic software like Word and Excel...um, yeah, that kind of crap making me unable to get anything done).

:( So, I decided to dress up a bit today to help me feel better about myself. I finally wore that cute red skirt that I bought a few months ago for David's christening, but couldn't wear because it was too cold in GA. I had on my favorite retro style 3" heels, and pantyhose. I don't know if I've gone into my fondness for pantyhose on my blog or not...but I'm weird and enjoy wearing them, as much of a pain as they are, because they actually make me feel more feminine and maybe a bit more refined. Plus, my legs look way better in them than without them...and they come in styles that suck in my tummy for me! Anyway, sorry for the slight diversion... I got a few nice compliments from co-workers, which I do appreciate. And then the inevitable obnoxious questions.

Only this time, no one asked if I had an interview. Nope, they must have figured out by now that I'm not going anywhere. (Now, maybe I'd have gotten that question if I came in wearing slacks and a matching suit jacket...which I no longer own in my actual size.)

Instead, I get the whole, "What's his name?" I don't need a man around for me to want to look nice. (Besides, I'll never meet one if I look as schlumpy as I usually do, now will I?) I really want to answer this way: His name is self-esteem, and I am trying to build him. But, I probably wouldn't say that... Instead I give a self-deprecating comment about there being no men and no prospects (while only slightly self-deprecating, as it's true). And naturally, since the earlier compliments did give me a boost of confidence, and I did think I looked pretty good today, I didn't run into a single attractive man today (okay, none that spoke to me). (Not that there are many around the office anyway - I work with all women...and I think we've scared off all the men.)

Anyway, that sort of ties into the latest quiz I took. I think it fits me, but I guess I should ask my friends if they agree with it's assessment of me.

Your Beauty Element is Water

Feminine and dreamy, your beauty style is classic and very vintage. But you never look out of style! You have a way of making classic looks modern again.

What's Your Beauty Element?

I'm Back - Boston Recap

I'm back, and my vacation was great! Over too soon, of course. I really liked Boston, and would go back again in a second. So much to see, lots of history, and walkable for the most part (not like SF hills…). And of course, the company was great. I'm glad that I have friends that I can get together with and interact as if no time had passed since we last talked. It also helps that the 2 couples never made me feel like a 5th wheel (which is usually not any one's intention, but you single people know how you can get that feeling as the one single person in the group?).

My friend Caitlin took a few days off of work, so she drove me around her hometown on Thursday afternoon (after I'd had a nice nap - not much sleep on the red-eye, hence the term). We picked up her husband after work and went to dinner, then headed back to their condo to hang out and plan the next day. Above is a photo of one of the Kennedy's homes, I believe...(Cait - correct me or clarify if necessary. I can't remember which town this was in.)

Caitlin in front of The Witch House in Salem, MA

Friday, Caitlin drove me out to Salem and we hit the Witch History Museum and the Pirate Museum. Both were pretty cool, but involved life sized scenes with creepy-looking human figures. We also did a fair amount of just walking around and talking. And it was really, really hot that day...97 degrees, according to the temperature gauge in the van. It didn't feel that hot, and it was humid.

Me & Caitlin in The Burying Point in Salem - self-portrait

We could have spent more time there, but had reservations that night for a ghost tour in Boston, so we braved the rush hour traffic and headed back home to meet back up with Kyle. After dinner, we took the T into the city and ran around Boston Common (Kyle considered it "walking") before the ghost tour. The ghost tour itself was not too ghost-centric, but included a lot of historical info, so wasn't bad. It included the Omni Parker House, where Dickens used to stay when in town, the Athenaeum, The Cheers Bar (formally the Bull & Finch - which they have actually renamed Cheers, after all the tourist questions), some graveyards I can't remember the names of... We had a nice small group of people on our tour, including a 3 people from Iowa from the town where they filmed Napoleon Dynamite (which I still haven't seen). Apparently, the girl on our tour actually designed those teal dance costumes that were in the performance at the end of the movie. I guess during filming, the crew was given free reign of the high school, and found the old outfits in storage. Of course, when she originally designed them, they were in style... (Sorry I can't be more specific, as I haven't seen the movie...but now I might need to check it out.) After the tour we hit Fanieul Hall for some ice cream and people watching. And there were lots of people to watch. Mostly drunk and under 25 (and I'm being generous with the ages).

Saturday started out slowly. I wasn't feeling great in the morning, and apparently Kyle hadn't been feeling great the night before. So we hung around the house until it was time to pick up our friends Moriah and Eric from the airport (they flew out from Ohio). We all went to dinner at the shore (and I got some good New England Clam Chowder). Later, we played Cranium - guys vs. girls. We women whipped their butts good. Yep, total modesty from me at all times... After Cranium, we kept the same teams and played Taboo. The guys started complaining that we were doing so much better because we had more players, so my team sacrificed me to the guys. Then my team won. Yeah, I'm a tad competitive...

On Sunday we hit Newport, RI (so we could see how the other half lives?). We toured 2 mansions (castles would me a more appropriate term!) - Marble House and The Breakers (The Breakers is on the left). Both "summer cottages" were owned by two of the Vanderbilt brothers - William and Cornelius. And Caitlin's service dog just happened to relieve herself on each of their well-manicured lawns... Not intentional by us, but we couldn't stop her! Both homes were gorgeous, and it was neat to learn about Alva Vanderbilt's personal suffragette mission (she designed Marble House, I believe, and used to hold suffragette rallies there).

View along the back of the Japanese tea house behind Marble House

Newport was beautiful, but ended up a lot colder than we expected it to be. And none of us thought to bring a sweater... Shouldn't we all have known better? You'd certainly think so! But after the 2 mansion tours, we went to Caitlin's favorite restaurant, Sardella's, and sat outside where the heat lamps were set up. NO heat reached us, and we were all freezing. We were joking (well, probably only half-joking, really) about sending someone down to the tourist section on a sweatshirt run. We toughed it out there, but we did all end up running into a souvenir shop and buying sweatshirts right after dinner. We went around a few little shops at the shore and then Caitlin bought us all hot cocoa (or whatever we wanted) at Starbucks, where we sat around chatting for a while.

Me & Moriah in our snazzy matching tourist gear

Monday we all ran around Boston. We got a late start, since it was raining that morning, so weren't able to cover too much of it. Plus, we had issues deciding what to do that day... We headed into the city and stumbled upon the Holocaust Memorial. Each of these tall glass towers represents one of the concentration camps, and has the numbers of all of the prisoners etched into the glass, all the way to the top. Kind of staggering. There are also quotes and factoids on the stone walkways and inside the towers. I'd encourage any visitors to the city to make a stop off there.

Next up - The Freedom Trail... We didn't do too much of the trail, since we didn't have all that much time left. We did run by Paul Revere's House, and past the tower that signalled him for the famous ride. We walked through the Paul Revere Pedestrian Mall (I think that's what it's called), which has the monument to Paul Revere's Midnight Ride, a fountain in the middle, and plaques commemorating historical figures from the city. I have to say, Boston had a lot of cute little park areas throughout the city.

Kyle and Eric hit Fenway Park that night and caught the game between the Red Sox and the Indians. And Eric is a big Indians fan, so went all decked out in support of his team. He didn't get any crap from the Sox fans for rooting for the other team though. And it sounded like the guys had a good time there. While they were at the game, we girls sat out on Cait's front patio gabbing. Then we moved inside, and gabbed some more.

Anyway, that's my trip in a nutshell. All of us out of towners flew home on Tuesday, and I've been trying to catch up at work since I got back. Today was the baby shower for my friend Christyn, but I'll get to that later.

I'll leave you with a creepy life-like sculpted (maybe molded) piece of the street lamp from in front of The Breakers. It's eerie, I tell ya!

Wild Turkey and Weddings

No, this is not exactly a cautionary tale. Well, I suppose it could be after all - it's all in the interpretation.

Wild Turkey:

Friday night, around 5:45pm, I was still at work at a co-worker's cubicle, adding some email documents to a file. My co-worker looks up at me and exclaims, "Did you hear that? It sounded like glass breaking!" I of course had heard nothing, and thought she was pulling my leg. Then she said it again, as she'd heard it again. Again, I heard nothing. And then my boss called out from her office, "Oh my God! You guys come here! Oh my God!"

So we ran to her office and asked what was going on. My office building is loosely shaped like a V (from an aerial view, of course) and my department is near the inside of the V, so my boss's office has a view of the backside of the other wing. Well, she pointed out 2 sections of shattered window. She said she heard one crash/glass breaking, then heard it again and saw something drop down the side of the building.

She was freaked out (we all were, after seeing the window damage, and not knowing what was going on). By this time, the other employee that was still at work at that time had joined us. The boss told us all to stay put, and she was going to check it out. We watched from her window and saw when she was over by the damage, but noticed that she didn't go in.

Now, since we are all actually disobedient children (and free-willed adults), we headed over there to check it out ourselves. The broken windows belonged to two adjacent rooms - a VP's office and a small meeting room. The floor of the meeting room was covered in large (and tiny) shards of glass and a heck of a lot of dark grey feathers. The blinds were completely thrashed. Tiny glass shards covered the central table. There was a small trail of glass shards (and a very few tiny drops of blood) leading from the window out the door of the meeting room and immediately into the next door office, across the room, up onto the low cabinet under the window, ending in another broken window.

That's right - a wild turkey (they live out on the hill behind the office building) had flown through the 2nd story window of the meeting room, walked into the hallway and into the adjacent office, and hurled itself back OUT that window! Crazy kamikaze turkeys!

Don't be fooled. These suckers are strong!! (And suicidal.)

Weddings:

Saturday I helped my wedding coordinator friend with a wedding. I worked the reception set up (along with the catering staff) while she was covering the ceremony. It was a beautiful day, so the couple lucked out (you never know in the bay).
Anyway, all went pretty smoothly until about 10 minutes before everyone was going to be called inside the dining room for dinner. My part was done and I was getting ready to leave. I stopped to grab a highchair for a man sitting at a table with a baby right before I left. As soon as we had figured out the straps for the seat (at which point the man said I must have children, and I told him that no, I actually don't), the fire alarm started going off. Most of the guests were out on the back patio already, and didn't know that this was going on. But, those inside were all ushered out of the building, and I shut the doors to the banquet hall so they wouldn't go back in, just in case the building was really on fire. You can't be too safe, right? Of course...I didn't realize that the doors automatically locked from the outside. Oops!!

I stood by one set of doors, letting people know why they couldn't go in (as I said, most of the guests that were outside already didn't know the alarm was going off). This included the bride - who took it very well! Luckily, the fireman that inspected and cleared the building opened the back door to tell us all we could come back in. Luckily we could, as he'd opened the door for us! And the bride and groom had the fireman pose for pictures with them. The fireman was a good sport. He announced that it was actually a set up (which it wasn't), and was pretty good-natured about it all. When the groom said to everyone, "okay, now he's going to strip," the fireman first said no, that wasn't going to happen, and then did a little shimmy move. It was quite amusing.
No one will be forgetting that wedding day!

The Wait is Over

After years and years of wondering if I'd ever find a man to marry (always a bridesmaid, never a bride...), I have delightfully discovered the perfect solution:Thank you PetCo!

Who knew, men really are dogs! You can get them at pet stores on sale...

Yeah, I Think I'll go to Boston...

Yep, my trip is all planned out. My father offered some of his frequent flier miles after I'd already paid for my Atlanta tickets. After I mentioned that on my blog, a few of my friends started extending invitations. Caitlin was the first to mention a specific date - Memorial Day - so I requested the time off from work and actually got it. Yay! I haven't seen Cait in 2 years (coincidentally, during Memorial day that year), so I'm really looking forward to the trip. Our mutual friend Moriah will also be coming down that weekend from Ohio (coincidentally, the last time I saw her was also Memorial day two years ago, at her wedding in Ohio!) with her husband.

I haven't been to the Boston area since I was a little kid, and I don't remember a whole lot. Caitlin is going to take some time off from work and we'll run around having fun on our own for a few days before Eric and Moriah get there. We were thinking of visiting Salem, MA one day, Newport, RI another, and I'm not sure what else yet.

Luckily for me, Caitlin's husband Kyle is also obsessed with the supernatural, so I've convinced them to take a haunted tour of Boston one night. This is one that will re-route the tour to accomodate wheelchairs, which is great, because we'd hate to leave Cait stuck somewhere in a purportedly haunted location in the dark without us! (And we'd hate to be left like that as well!)

Time is flying, and the trip is coming up quite soon. This weekend I am helping Kristin out with a wedding, so I'll be making some vacation moola. I will need it. I also need to do a whole lot of laundry before I can pack, which I should be able to do this weekend. (I wrote it down for the world to see - that means I'm accountable and it might actually get done.) My apartment complex is replacing the faucets in my apartment while I am gone, so I also need to do some cleaning around here so they don't decide to evict me (again with the accountability here)...

Wish me luck on the cleaning!